There seems to be a buzz going around right now about how to get cheap airfares. You hear people talking about getting free flights or travel hacking their way abroad.
And as someone who regularly gets cheap flight deals to anywhere and everywhere, I’m going to share with you how I do it – without credit card travel hacking!
In fact, most of our round-trip flights to other countries are well below $400 per person – and recently we even managed to fly to another country for $56!
So today let’s talk about the best kept secrets to finding cheap flights!
How to Get Cheap Airfares Overview:
- Be ultra flexible
- Book as early as possible
- Clear your cookies & use an incognito tab
- Skyscanner’s Cheapest Month & Alerts features
- How to find the off-seasons
- Book one way flights
- Make your own connections
- Fly into or out of nearby airports
- 24 hour cancellation policy
- Carry on only saves money
- Don’t be afraid of layovers
- Error fares
- Sign up for newsletters
- Skip the extras
- Pay in another currency
- Use a VPN
- Search for one person at a time
- Depart on a holiday
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Best Time to Fly to Europe and Abroad
Before we get into the nitty-gritty of how to get cheap airfares, I want to make a quick note on the best time to fly to Europe – or anywhere really.
As a travel blogger, I get asked this question a ton!
And my answer is always the same.
The best time to fly to Europe is whenever you can afford it!
Are there cheaper seasons to fly?
Yes, of course.
But please don’t let this stop you from going if it’s the only time you can go!
With these tricks I’m about to tell you, you’ll be able to find the cheapest flights at anytime of year, as long as you keep an open mind!
After all, the whole point of traveling is to have new experiences 😉
You deserve to travel more!
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How to Get Cheap Airfares
1) be ultra flexible
The easiest way to jack up the price on airfare is to be super specific.
When you’re searching for flights, keep an open mind about the destination and/or the flight times.
Some of our best deals have been to places we weren’t originally planning on traveling to!
2) book as early as possible
I know you’ve heard that the best day to book a flight is X day of the week, approximately X weeks before your trip.
But please don’t wait until that day to book your flight!
If you know the flight you want book it ASAP. Because the probability of it getting cheaper is slim to none #realtalk
There have been times when we’ve waited to get the “sale price” on a flight, and that price ended up being more expensive than the original flight we found *facepalm*
So as soon as you know where you’re heading and you find that magical flight, book it – the sooner the better!
3) cookies & incognito tabs
Yes, this is a real thing.
If you’re not familiar with website cookies, they are basically little trackers that keep a record of what pages you’ve been to – and what you’re searching for.
But booking sites use them to increase the price of flights if you’ve been looking around a bit!
So go to the browser’s toolbar and clear your cookies asap!
And while we’re on the topic – using an incognito tab works the same way, by not keeping cookies on your browser.
I usually do both – because I’m a little paranoid I like to be extra safe 😛
4) Cheapest Month & Skyscanner alerts
Skyscanner is a great booking site, but you have to know how to use it properly!
Don’t just search for your flight – use their Cheapest Month Feature to find the cheapest flight to any destination in the world!
And if you’re not familiar with it, we have an entire tutorial on using Skyscanner to get cheap flights!
5) How to find the off-seasons
Like I mentioned above, the off-seasons are a great way to travel cheap, and if it fit’s in with your schedule then definitely take advantage of these periods!
But the “off-season” may actually be different than what you think it is, and it totally depends on the place you’re traveling to.
I use two methods to look for these magical times of year:
- Skyscanner automatically finds them for you via the Cheapest Month Feature
- Google (name of destination + off season)
6) book one way flights
When I search for flights, I always separate the flights individually. This is for several reasons:
- I’ve seen the same two flights become more expensive when the airline or booking site bundles them for you
- By searching for one-way only I can find cheaper return flights from nearby airports
- Some flights that I would have found don’t show up when searching for round-trip
- Most of the time we don’t return from the same place we arrived in
7) Make your own connections
This one is similar to only booking one way flights.
Instead of booking from here to my end destination, I’ll usually book a flight to a cheaper place and then find a really cheap flight to get to where I need to be.
A good way to start this by searching for a flight to your final destination and then if there’s a connection in between them, clear your cookies and search for the individual flights.
Often times I find that the individual flights are cheaper than if you allow the airline to make the connection for you!
8) NEARBY AIRPORTS
I think this is pretty self explanatory, but I’m always surprised by how many people forget to check for flights from nearby airports.
And sometimes the difference in price is huge!
I found a flight from Miami to Boston for $209 but the flight from Miami to a smaller airport nearby was only $96! That’s a huge deal for an airport that isn’t too far away!
9) 24 hours cancellation POLICY
If you don’t know, most major US airlines offer a free cancellation period of 24 hours after you book your fare.
If you’re unsure if your airline offers this, be sure to look it up and find out!
Because life happens and you never know if and when you might need to cancel or change a flight!
10) CARRY ON ONLY
Back in the day, airlines never used to charge for luggage.
Sadly those days are over and now every piece of luggage you take on your trip is more money out of your pocket!
But a great way that I’ve been able to get away from these extra fees is by traveling light, meaning only taking a carry on!
And before you say that traveling light is hard and you wouldn’t be able to do it, just take a look at our How to Pack Light post – I think you’ll find it much easier than you realize!
11) Don’t be afraid of layovers
Layovers are great for cheap airfares!
But they’re also great for seeing new places – like the time we extended our layover to spend 48 hours in Copenhagen.
So don’t think of them as a waste of time, think of them as another mini-vacation!
As long as the layover is 6 hours or more (in my opinion) you probably have enough time to get out and explore a bit!
12) ERROR FARES
Ah, error fares!
I have a love hate relationship with them, but they are arguably one of the best ways to find cheap flights!
If you don’t know what they are, basically it’s when the airline messes up and lists a flight for much cheaper than it’s supposed to be.
How do you find them? Well you use a site like Secret Flying which has the latest error fares and cheap flight deals to browse through!
The only caveat is that they often get corrected quickly, so you need to book asap before they’re gone!
13) Sign up for newsletters
Another amazing way to be alerted about super cheap flights is by signing up for newsletters for your favorite airlines and booking flights.
I love this method because I don’t have to go searching for great deals!
All I have to do is sign up and they constantly send me the best deals they have, all I have to do is decide where I’m heading 😛
14) SKIP THE EXTRAS
Extras on a flight start to add up quick.
Add in the in-flight meal, seat selection, and any other “extra” selections, and your great flight bargain starts looking like a first class ticket – except you’re still stuck in economy!
We’ve never paid for seat selection and we usually (like 99.99% of the time) end up sitting next to each other on the plane.
We’ve also never paid for the meal on board – and we’ve never starved to death 😛
Plus if you know how to maximize your vacation days, you won’t need to eat on the flight or even be awake!
15) Pay in another currency
This tip has saved us a ton of money in the past – but there’s a bit of work involved.
First you need to actually have found the flight you want.
Next, go to that country’s version of the website – so if you plan on flying via TAP Portugal, go to the original website in Portuguese, not the US version of the website.
Then in a separate tab, open up the same website but in English.
Now run through the flight search again, both in the English and in the original website versions.
Use the English site to navigate (don’t let the page translate to English automatically since it also changes the currency), and then when you find the actual flight price, run that price through a currency converter to see if it’s actually cheaper.
Many times I’ve found the same flight about $30 cheaper – as long as I pay in the other currency!
16) USE A VPN
Have you ever noticed that on a booking site they will show you deals from your home airport to somewhere else?
That’s because your location is showing! They know where you are…kind of creepy right?
Why do they do this? Marketing.
If they think you’re leaving from Miami, they can show you higher priced flights that they think you “need” since you’re obviously leaving from Miami.
So make sure to use a Virtual Private Network to change your location and prevent the booking sites from targeting you for higher airfares!
17) SEARCH FOR ONE PERSON AT A TIME
Even if you’re traveling with 5 other people, only search for one person to start with.
This is because if you put in the search bar that you need 6 seats, it will try to return 6 of the same seats.
Those seats may or may not be the cheapest ones on the plane.
So search for one person at a time and you’ll start noticing that the price will sometimes say “only 2 seats left at this price” – even if they’re all in economy!
If you search for all 6, the airline won’t even show you the cheaper option.
Then you can book those 2 at the lower price, and only the other 4 will be at the next price level.
18) DEPART ON A HOLIDAY
Yes, leaving on a holiday may be a little inconvenient, but it’s often the cheapest time to fly.
In fact, every year we leave for our winter holiday on Christmas night and we’ve even put together a ton of tips for flying on Thanksgiving day!
It ends up being the cheapest airfare you can get and we just move the festivities up a bit to accommodate our vacation!
Omgosh, that was a lot!
All of our secrets to finding cheap flights – wrapped up into 18 How to Get Cheap Airfares post!
Now it’s time to start searching for your own flights!
And don’t forget to subscribe to our free travel resource library! It will help you plan your trip like a pro and it only takes 5 seconds!
Happy travels!
– Veronica
Pin How to Find Cheap Airfares!
Good day! I could have sworn I’ve been to this site before but after checking through some of the post I realized it’s new to me. Anyways, I’m definitely happy I found it and I’ll be bookmarking and checking back often!
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